Worship
Service for March 9, 2025
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: For some of us, it was tempting to “sleep
in” this morning.
P: God has called us to this place, to hear
God’s word, to open our hearts in prayer and praise, and to seek direction for
our lives.
L: There are many temptations placed in front
of us. We are called to be strong and
place our trust in God.
P: God is always faithful to us, comforting,
guiding, lifting us. ‘’
Opening Hymn – Near the Cross #319
Brown Hymnal
Prayer of Confession
Great God of the universe, You
made a covenant with all creatures, promising life and hope. God of pathways, You show us how we should
walk. Yet we forget our connection with
one another and think that we are the center of the universe. We wander from Your paths of truth into paths
of deceit and pride. Forgive us and lead
us back into the arms of Your love. (Silent
prayers are offered)
AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: God will provide for your needs. Place your trust in God. You are not alone. God is with you always. The world cannot offer to you such abiding
riches as the presence of God.
P: We will put our trust in the Lord! Thanks be to God! AMEN.
Gloria Patri
Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’
Creed
I believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the
third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on
the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge
the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the
resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Lord, we are flooded
with offers of millions of dollars in our emails, screaming to us from
television screens, crowding up our mailboxes, the dream of great wealth, which
play havoc with our financial desires and dreams. Life isn’t easy. We do have struggles. We have come through the season devoted to
commercialization of giving, to a time in which we are called to put aside the
desire for wealth, status, power and enter into a journey of faith. This call
is not an easy one to follow. It is much easier to succumb to the temptations
of the culture of greed. Obsolescence is built into our systems - just as a new
one is developed it becomes yesterday’s news. But Your love and power, O God, are
never obsolete. Your presence is with us
always, lifting, healing, restoring, encouraging us to move forward on the
journey of service and compassion.
We bring to our prayers
today needs of others and situations which are difficult and sorrowful. Healing God, we implore You to respond with
compassion and care for these, our loved ones. Help us, O God, to remember that You are
indeed in the midst of these times, giving hope and love.
This morning we pray
for….
Also, Lord, hear our
souls’ desire in the center of our hearts as we lift up to you our unspoken
prayers in this time of silence.
Enable us to feel the
power of Your love in our own lives. Empower
us to share this love with others, for we ask this in Jesus’ Name.…Our Father
who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy
name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. Give us
this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors. And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. AMEN.
Hymn – What
Wondrous Love is This #85/314
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Dueteronomy
26:1-11
Second Scripture Reading – Luke 4:1-13
Sermon – Tested
Our Lord lived most of his
earthly life in community. He called his
disciples alongside him and was with them nearly nonstop. But there were very intentional times of
solitude. Jesus often went off by
himself to pray. God does certain work
in our lives only through community. He
does other work only through solitude. We
need both.
And
today we look at a specific forty-day period of isolation that was for Jesus
most unpleasant also most necessary as he began his ministry. Today’s scripture reading is a familiar one
where Jesus was led out into the wilderness for 40 days and nights. The number 40 is one of those symbolic
numbers in scripture that denotes a period of time of trials, probation, and
times of trouble in the Bible. It is one
of those numbers that can’t really be taken literally, but rather as a rounded
number to express a complete period of time.
It began….then after a long period of time (days of something bad) it
ended.
While
he was there, he ate nothing and was tested by the Devil. It was a necessary time for Jesus to be
alone, to face the Devil, to conquer is own doubts and insecurities. There in the wilderness was a stretch of
Judea about 35 miles long by 15 miles wide called, Jeshimmon, which means Land
of Devastation. It’s been described in
this way, “The hills are like dust heaps.
The limestone looked blistered and peeling. The rocks were bare and jagged.” I didn’t completely understand what this kind
of landscape might look like, until I went to Peru. There is a similar area on the West Coast of
Peru where the hills are just like that; dust heaps, and nothing but limestone
dust and salt. It was in this terrible
land of devastation that Jesus went, led by the Holy Spirit, to pray. And it was here that the Devil found ways of
tempting him.
The
forty days that Luke talks about Jesus spending in the wilderness mirror other
mentions of 40 days in Scripture such as the Great Flood when it rained for 40
days and 40 nights, when Moses fasted for 40 days and 40 nights to receive the
Law from God, and when he spent 40 days on Mount Sinai twice, when Elijah
walked 40 days and 40 nights to reach the mountain of God, when in the story of
David and Goliath, Goliath taunted the Israelites for 40 days before David
defeated him, when the Israelites wandered for forty years in the nearby
wilderness areas where, time and time again, they refused to trust God, when
Jesus later appeared to his apostles for 40 days after the resurrection, and
here when at the start of his ministry, Jesus stayed in the desert for 40 days
being tempted by the devil.
The
number 40 is used a lot in scripture to denote a specific time period that a
bad period or a transition period of time began and ended. A lot of the commentaries about this passage
move to the three temptations that the Deceiver offered Christ. But what’s curious to me is that the
scriptures actually say, “that he was tempted by the devil during all those 40
days”, but it wasn’t until the 40 days were over that we have the three
specific temptations that Jesus went through.
The first was about economics (turning
stones into bread), the second was about politics and power (all the kingdoms
of the world could be yours), and the third was about religion (you are the son
of God, right? If God has given his
angels to guard over you so that you cannot be harmed, then throw yourself down
off this temple). I’m going to talk
about those three in a moment, but what about all those other days? What other temptations did the Devil try on
Jesus, first?
I’m much more interested in knowing
those. To be truthful, the big three
that Luke lists don’t really do it for me in terms of temptations. Would they really be temptations for
you? Maybe they were big temptations for
Christ, but they certainly aren’t mine.
So,
for all those 40 days and nights what do you think Jesus might have been
tempted with? What are some of your
temptations?
For
me, it might have been something like oh, have another cookie, it’s Sunday,
calories don’t count on Sundays, right?
Or my favorite rationalization, is to just take the broken ones, because
they don’t count. Or, why walk when you
can take the car, yes, it’s only a few blocks…it will be so much faster to just
zip in and out.
I
think an even harder one for me might be to just do nothing. That was one way my mom could punish me the
most. Just sit there, don’t move. Are you kidding me? I’m not the kind of person that can just sit
around and do nothing. I’d have to be up
and about doing something after just a minute or two when I was a kid…I might
be able to last an entire hour now, but that’s about it. I can’t imagine what I’d do in such a land of
desolation. That would certainly be a
way for the devil to break me down and offer me anything and I might take
it.
Years
ago, one of the punishments for a crime was to put people down in a dungeon in
total darkness for days at a time. Most
people would go mad after a week or two.
What
are some of your temptations? What would
the devil have taken his time to torture and tempt you with for 40 days and
nights?
What
were they for Christ? Maybe to go back
to being a carpenter, a skill he’d learned well from his earthly father. One that had provided for his growing up. A trained skill that was always in demand,
always needed regardless of town or village; bowls to hollow out, spoons to
carve, broken chairs to mend, or a door to fix.
He could solve the everyday annoyances of so many people. Maybe the temptation was to have a family of
his own with children to raise. A house
that he could call a home, a loving wife that cared only for him and he only of
her, children that scurried around his feet during the day, but also those whom
he could tuck into bed at night and whisper, I love you, into their ears. Maybe the temptation that the Devil tormented
him with night and day was to simply not be in the limelight all the time, to
take a day off and not have crowds gathering around wanting more and more of
him. Did he already know that his
closest friends would abandon him in his greatest time of need? Did he know that he’d have to die by
crucifixion? Were those the tempters
words that occupied his thoughts day and night in the wilderness? Did Jesus know that all of his efforts of
starting a new movement of forgiveness and love would depend on just a few
faithful followers, that those large throngs of people would fall away? And even those faithful few wouldn’t always
be so faithful, that some of them would even deny knowing him? Were those the things that the Devil tempted
him with, night and day for 40 days. To
torture him about, to remind him of what the future actually held, to dangle
before him the prospect of not having to go through all that.
We
aren’t given any details about that.
Instead, we’re simply told that the Devil tempted him during all those
40 days and when the 40 days were over, he was really hungry, not having eaten
anything and the Devil said to him, “You’re famished, if you are the son of
God, turn these stones into bread. Go
ahead do it.” It’s as if they devil was
taunting him, knowing that he is weak and vulnerable. “Look, you’ve just denied yourself for 40
days, having eaten nothing. It’s your
right. You deserve it.” But this temptation isn’t about bread. It’s really about economics and what we
deserve to have. The devil wants Jesus
to feel entitled and make decisions based on that. It’s always dangerous to go around telling
yourself what you deserve. That’s where
credit card debt comes from: “I deserve a little splurge.” That’s where embezzlement comes from: “I am
worth more than they pay me.” That’s
where drug and alcohol addiction can come from, too, “I deserve a little break
from all this.” But Jesus understood his
role as the Son of God, even while the Devil tempted him and he knew that his
role was to be a servant to others, not one who was to be served. His life would be that of giving, not one of
privilege. In different accounts of this
story, Jesus mentions the manna that God provided for the people of Israel to
eat. In the Lukan account, he simply
rebukes the Devil with these words, “One does not live by bread alone.” Jesus knew that throughout scripture, when
the people of God put their trust in God, God always provided for them. He had no doubts that God would do the same
for him.
Next
the Devil takes Jesus to a high point and shows him all the kingdoms of the
world. The kingdoms of the world have
always been run by powerful politics, by men and women that have often given up
their soul on the pathway to the privilege and power that come with the
leadership of nations. And the Devil is
willing to give them all to Christ, offering him a shortcut to all that power,
no cross needed, if Christ will do one thing, “Kneel to me, worship me,” the
Devil says, “and I will give it all to you.”
Sometimes
we are tempted to believe that the end justifies the means, saying to
ourselves, “I might have to stab somebody in the back to get ahead, but once I
am in that job I’ll use my influence for the good.” Chris Ritter, a fellow pastor says, “You
can’t do God’s work with the devil’s playbook.
God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s blessing. God’s work done our way always leads to
trouble.” And I think she’s right. There are no shortcuts, they often lead to
trouble. There are no compromises, they
often end up costing us plenty more than we bargained for.
Jesus
responds immediately with, “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve only
him.” He didn’t think twice. Jesus knew that regardless of the pain that
might come or the difficult road he might have to face, no shortcuts would be
worth it.
You’d
think that would be the end of it; Jesus denying the Devil the power to rule
the kingdoms of the world and not willing to kneel down and worship him. But the Devil has one more temptation to try
on Christ at the place where God himself was said to dwell and where the people
of Israel worshiped. The Devil took
Jesus to the top of the temple. The
Devil doesn’t bother tempting us with things we don’t want. He goes right to the center of our heart’s
desire. And here was Christ’s. This is the temple where Zechariah prayed for
him when he was just a baby. This is the
temple where Mary and Joseph presented him for blessing, where Jesus sat at the
feet of the rabbis when he was twelve years old. The Devil knew that Jesus’s destiny was tied
to this city and this temple. Jesus had
a huge heart for Jerusalem and a zeal for God’s house. In fact, he would one day weep over this
city.
“If
you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, ‘he will command his
angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their
hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
The
Devil wants Jesus to succumb to the spectacular, to show these people in the
seat of religious power, and any doubters, who he really is…in glorious
fashion. But that wasn’t God’s plan. No, God’s plan was for him to enter this city
on the back of a donkey, not on the wings of angels. And Jesus responds, “Do not put the Lord your
God to the test.” In other words, in
simple terms, “Don’t be stupid.” There’s
one thing about putting our trust in God, but there’s something quite different
about not using the God-given brain we have to not do stupid things.
At
this, the Devil retreats until an opportune time. That’s one of those lines that are in a book
or movie to foreshadow the events that will take place in the future. But be forewarned, this isn’t a book or
movie, in real life temptation is never far away and will always take advantage
of our weak moments. So, guard your
hearts and minds against foolishness and temptations.
Thanks
be to God! AMEN.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Lord, with these gifts we say a resounding
“Yes” to you; work in us and through us, that we may reflect your light, your
truth, and your love into this world that gropes in the darkness. May the light of your Love shine brightly in
our hearts and set the world aglow with the power of your grace. AMEN
Closing
Hymn – O Sacred Head Now Wounded #98/316
Benediction –
The journey
has begun. God is with you. Go forth to learn, to teach, to serve. Go bringing peace and hope to all in the name
of Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Postlude
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